Allison Conrad
Mrs. Straub
AP Economics
21 October 2014
How Robots Build Humans
In an age filled to the brim with smartphones, iPads, and Facebook, our society has become dependent on the hottest technologies of the day, and behind each and every one of those electricity powered devices resides an engineer. Yet our world’s moving forward at an alarming rate into technological reliance, leaving over a hundred thousand unfilled engineering jobs nationwide. However as other programs work to create our future basketball superstars or our next professional bowlers, one alone works to promote the fields of science and engineering that has touched over 350,000 students, 64,000 adult mentors, and 66,000 other volunteers last year alone. FIRST: For The Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, is an organization that involves students aged six to eighteen through its various age group specific programs. Students become involved in the creation of building robots and exuding the values of the organization: teamwork, cooperation, and a drive to succeed in whatever future aspirations the students have. (To learn more about FIRST, watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7k5IxsixO4)
FIRST is a huge boon to it’s students, providing a wide range of scholarship opportunities even for those not wanting to go into engineering. The utility for each student attending those regional competitions is staggering, the bright lights, the mascots, the flashes of neon and LED’s everywhere, giveaway items distributed to everyone and everyone, only adds to the experience of the entire event itself as a whole. Many chose their career paths based off this experience alone, and it can completely change a student's future. Student’s are 35% more likely to go to college in any career, and 23% more likely to go into engineering as a career later in life. Another positive externality from FIRST on to its students is that they are much more likely to volunteer their time than the average student (41% more likely), showing that the program not only makes better students, but better people too.
However in the first week of the new season as the “game” for the year is announced (2012 was a basketball themed year, 2013 Frisbee golf, ect.) the insanity that ensues can be a huge surprise to new rookie teams. Some of the explicit costs would be the original Regional competition fee at $5000, the robot would cost around $4000, spirit wear, transportation, new equipment, food and more, making a seemingly very large barrier of entry for new teams. Yet other veteran teams, schools, and large companies help guide and fund these new teams, easing the process significantly and contributing to the over 5000 teams currently in FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC, high school level robotics) alone. But for those involved, the implicit costs can seem higher, the average of 25 hour weeks during the build season seriously limit both students and mentors time for work and for other interests, making it near impossible to be in say a sport in addition to robotics. Robotics is a sport, a sport of the mind, and the challenge it presents to students offers a unique experience like no other, learning about how to make robots sure but more importantly about how to work together and truly become a team.
Work Cited:
The FIRST organization itself is a monopoly because it offers a service in which there are no close substitutes. Similar to public sector organizations that promote improvements in society such as the fire department or the police, this private sector business benefits the community by offering education to students. While teams may have to pay a fee to enter the competitions, they are very likely to make up their return on investment in the future. The marginal benefits of the fun, the education and the connections this organization has for the future aspirations of students, highly outweighs the marginal cost of the entry fee.
ReplyDeleteThis was a very interesting piece to read about. I like how you related your interests to our econ class. The FIRST organization does not have much competition because it's a single firm that is mostly the industry. The explicit and implicit costs come into play when you are talking about this organization. A lot of effort and hard work, like you mentioned specifically 25 hours, and you have to see if this actually does benefit you.If the marginal benefit exceeds the marginal cost, this program is something that you should do. If the marginal cost exceeds marginal benefit, I would consider rethinking this program and if it is right for you. This will not work if this is the case. Good job on writing this piece. I like how you included the graph to support your point even more.
ReplyDeleteInteresting to learn about how an organization most people have never heard about is affecting a major field in such a big way. It seems to me that for entry into this program, one must weigh the opportunity cost as well as the marginal benefit vs. marginal cost highly as the costs as well as the benefits rank fairly high. But the thing that struck me the most would have to be the almost monopolistic feel to this "industry". Although it does seem to me like it have a monopolistic sort of setting, the program to me sounds more like an all-inclusive sort of deal rather than a very picky group. There may not be any close substitutes, but the program itself isn't looking as much for a profit or to hike up the price of entry to make it more closely related to a pure monopoly, but rather to attract students to this idea of engineering and help them achieve higher goals in their future.
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